Chemical science has ruled agronomy for over 160 years since Justus von Liebig invented chemical concepts that led to the development of the modern synthetic nitrogen fertilizer industry. Liebig originated the notion that inorganic nitrogen is the primary element necessary to increase fertility in soil for agriculture. Although agronomists always have had some knowledge of soil microorganisms, most agronomists practicing today view the soil as a complex chemistry set, to be modified by addition of specific chemicals.
Modern agronomists believe that chemicals are necessary to “balance” the soil and that chemicals applied in addition to fertilizers should be relied on to drive growth and eliminate fungus and disease. In particular, the “nitrogen cycle,” accepted for the last 150 years as an absolute reality, essentially postulates that all plants can only digest inorganic forms of nitrogen. Soil scientists originated the concept of the “nitrogen cycle” in the nineteenth century. They found a ratio of 70% inorganic nitrogen to 30% organic nitrogen in the lakes and rivers of industrial countries and postulated that this was the natural order of soil chemistry. Over a century of time well meaning scientists reinforced and expanded the concept as established dogma, with additional discoveries. From this pure chemical view, an entire industry of commercial agriculture has established, focusing on inorganic synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.
In the early 1990's at an organics conference in Austin, Tex. a doctor of agronomy from Texas A&M University stood up and made the statement that all anyone needs to grow anything is N—P—K. He was, of course, talking about the three most important nutrients that a plant requires for growth, nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and potash (K). He then proceeded to prove with his slides that you could grow plants in gravel or sand with N—P—K. This raw belief in chemical universally prevails in agriculture even today. Those trained only in chemical based agronomics often believe that topsoil merely is a medium into which they can pour chemicals to grow just about anything. Many agronomists believe that synthetic inorganic nitrogen fertilizers and technical advances in genetics will continue the green revolution for hundreds of years past their deaths.
With such background belief in high energy intensive chemistry practices driving modern farming techniques, there has been little alarm about topsoil loss from the commercial agriculture community. However this is a serious problem from the view of long term sustainability as well as from the view of energy use. In fact agricultural soils in the United States have lost 85% of their minerals content compared to that of 100 years ago (Rio Earth Summit, 1992). This phenomenon has been documented worldwide. Researchers found that soils in Africa have seventy-four percent less minerals, soils in Asia have seventy-six percent less minerals, soils in Europe have seventy two percent less minerals, soils in South America have seventy-six percent less minerals and in Canada, soils have eighty-five percent less minerals than 100 years ago. This loss has been documented along with a corresponding loss in arable topsoil. The USDA, FAO, and other major agriculture organizations agree that worldwide topsoil loss exceeds 50% in most places and continues deteriorating at the rate of about 1% a year. Topsoil, the top 6″ of soil in which the atmosphere can penetrate, is critical to the growth of healthy crops. University testing indicates healthy topsoil supports a 17% higher rate of food production when compared to non-topsoil soil components alone in the form of sand, silt, and clay fertilized with N—P—K conventional fertilizers. Without topsoil plants are less healthy and are unable to contain higher levels of minerals which are responsible for the creation of vitamins found in plants.
Carbon, or soil organic matter, in the form of stored stable chelated nutrients is the primary component of topsoil other than the basic matter of the soil which is sand, silt, or clay or a combination thereof. Carbon materials found in topsoil are the result of past and present lives of soil microorganisms. These Carbon materials, known as soil acids, glomalin, and other organic produced by-products, are the products from the lives of populations of soil microorganisms. Such Carbon materials are the basis of natural fertility in a soil. Their presence enables the growth of secondary soil microorganisms and the consumption of plant detritus. Together, such growth works to increase natural topsoil fertility through the deposit of additional microorganism waste. The life forms that together generate these nutrients are the basis of natural topsoil fertility.
Natural fertility is a unique form of fertility having the benefit of being made up, in large part, of chelated elemental minerals. Chelated minerals are those elemental minerals which have formed into a six sided Carbon molecular structure. These structures link together to form complex polymer chains in topsoil. All minerals essential to plant growth are contained in these molecular structures. Plants that access these molecular structures by their root structures can uptake and directly use chelated minerals from these molecules since the elemental minerals have been pre-digested by the soil molecules into a form that plants can readily use.
Biotic fertilizers are designed to build these nutrients in the soil by accelerating the growth of topsoil microorganisms Biotic fertilizers are primarily aimed at increasing populations of cyanobacteria, formally known as blue-green algae, and like organisms that have the ability to engage in photosynthesis and to engage in the extraction of Nitrogen from the atmosphere. Cyanobacteria are omnipresent in all soils in all places on this earth. The design and manufacture process used to produce biotic fertilizers are specifically designed and manufactured to provide the maximum acceleration of a cyanobacteria population and like organisms. The life cycles of cyanobacteria and like organisms are the most efficient converters of organic nutrients into stored organic nutrients in topsoil in the form of balanced chelated minerals into a soil. These nutrients, as demonstrated in the following table “A”, are the nutrients needed to grow a plant to its full genetic potential.
TABLE “A”ElementLbs.Yield of 1,000 lbs of cyanobacteria proteinNitrogen1401,000 lbs of cyanobacteria proteinPhosphorus30can yield these minerals as a result ofPotassium10protein synthesis.Sulfur10Magnesium5Iron2TraceProportionateMinerals
It is the combined presence of minerals, stored carbon forms of organic nutrients, and large populations of air breathing topsoil microorganisms that constitutes the top level of soil known as topsoil. Soil acids, the primary form of “A” Horizon Carbon is responsible for holding the soil together and preventing erosion. Soil acids have the ability to hold up to 97% of their weight in moisture in a complex matrix which stores water in the soil. These acids also act to hold soil particles together, protecting the surface of healthy topsoil from erosion by wind and rain.
Healthy arable topsoil is vital for the continuation of the current level of population on earth. If, as the USDA and FAO maintain, the earth is losing arable topsoil at the rate of 1% a year then the loss of fertility will, at some time, impact the ability of humankind to feed the population of the earth which has expanded greatly in the last half-century. Ironically, it is the opinion of the inventor that the principal cause of this loss may be due to conventional N—P—K type fertilizers based on forms of water soluble synthetic inorganic nitrogen. The rapid increase in observed erosion and loss of arable topsoil worldwide coincides with the introduction and large scale availability of synthetic inorganic nitrogen fertilizers. Topsoil has a natural nitrogen—carbon balance. When that balance is upset as a result of the application of synthetic water soluble Nitrogen then soil microbes are encouraged to increase their consumption of the stored carbon contained in the topsoil. When too much synthetic Nitrogen is applied to the soil it accelerates topsoil microorganisms to consume stored carbon eliminating the “glue” that holds the soil particles together. In this manner topsoil, and its attendant ability to prevent erosion, is destroyed. The result is a loss of natural fertility and a loss of the soil to retain its defenses against the erosion that is a result of weather. This long term destruction has been masked by the increase in crop production that has been enabled by energy intensive combustion of fossil fuels for fixing nitrogen and addition of various nutrients to the soil for short term use.
The destruction of arable topsoil is one of the most important problems ever faced by mankind. Civilizations collapse when soil fertility collapses. One-half the area of present China was once covered with a vast temperate-zone forest. This forest was eliminated before recorded history by the expansion of the empires of China. For thousands of years since then, China has suffered some of the worst erosion in the world. The Yellow Sea is named for the surrounding land's eroding yellow loess soils carried into it by the rivers.
The empires of Sumer and Babylon in the watershed of the Tigris-Euphrates River collapsed after irrigation for agriculture and overgrazing destroyed their lands. Today one-third of the otherwise arable land of Iraq cannot be used because it is still saline from irrigation of 5,000 years ago. The mouth of the Tigris-Euphrates River has extended itself 185 miles into the gulf as the fertility of that hapless land has washed into the sea. Every empire has run, and still runs, a net deficit of the fertility of the earth in order to sustain the unnatural growth and material consumption of its population. The cultural history of Babylon can be traced through time to denuded Greece and to Rome, which eroded the soil of that peninsula. If the United States had to stop its fossil fuel intensive feeding of raw chemical nutrients to agricultural land to replenish the minerals lost as topsoils here, without a suitable alternative, Americans likewise would face a devastating threat to their living standards.
Of course, organic soil amendments and some fertilizers have been used to put nutrient waste back into soil. However, much of that art is filled with misunderstandings and engenders new problems
Growers who dump unprocessed and unstable animal waste sludge on land often see an increase in salt levels and metal toxins. Such practice may result in air quality problems as nutrients, driven by bacteria decomposition volatilize into the atmosphere in the form of CO2, methane, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide. This can occur with great rapidity. According to University studies as much as 25% of contained Nitrogen can be lost within the first 24 hours after application. Particulate from these materials often become airborne as well providing health problems for area residents. In addition to atmospheric pollution, there is also ground water and surface water pollution that may result from the practice of dumping unprocessed manure on land. Mineral nutrients, primarily phosphates, nitrate, and nitrites, often leaches into water causing pollution.
A variety of mechanical treatment methods have been proposed to stop bacterial activity of feedstock used in organic fertilizers. For example, Connell (U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,273) suggested mixing lime with an organic feedstock using a vertical cyclone such as a Mobile PowerMaster 250™ to grind and make a high pH product. Connell reported that the “result” of this “first grinding” is a “stabilized” material (i.e. “halting the growth of the microbe populations”) with “a basic pH of approximately between 8 and 11,” wherein the high pH is an “aid in disinfection of the organic feedstock.” Later steps include adding micronutrients and strong acid to lower the pH back down again from the high pH condition “by a standard acid/base reaction” to neutralize the carbonate ions as carbon dioxide gas.” Unfortunately, this method requires extensive processing, starting with a grinder and at least two pH changes.
Recent awareness of the need for more “organic” fertilizers has led to a spate of patents. See U.S. Pat. No. 7,024,796, which teaches the use of high temperature gas turbine drying of animal waste feedstock to meet the need “for production of organic fertilizer and soil builder products.” Unfortunately that method “cooks” the organic material and in part, “destroys” components with 1000 degree heat. Not surprisingly, as a result of this high heat, “starch, protein, carbohydrate and sugar components are converted to glutenous-like materials” which are a less soluble form and not readily usable by soil biota. This focus on high temperature (energy intensive) baking and reliance on exogenous inorganic nutrients is further represented by U.S. Pat. No. 6,846,343, which teaches baking at 300 degrees Fahrenheit or more, again with the goal of supplying minimum amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium and other essential minerals for plant growth.
Thus, despite the recent popularity of “organic fertilizers” the composition of such “natural” fertilizers remain fixated on the classical chemistry approach of using fertilizer itself as a kind of medium to feed plants a balanced nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and mineral composition for direct plant feeding. The nutrient requirements of soil microorganisms generally is not addressed in a comprehensive way.
This focus on plant nutrient absorption to the exclusion of the soil biota can be seen in nitrogen usage. Nitrogen often is added as ammonia or urea. These forms of nitrogen are converted into nitrite and nitrate for plant use, or at least the portions of applied nitrogen that do not volatize and become lost in the atmosphere. This well-known biological nitrification is a two step process that begins with ammonia conversion to nitrite and then nitrite oxidation to nitrate. In fact, companies such as United-Tech sell specially selected microorganisms for this process. In contrast, the opposite direction of ammonia conversion to urea and of urea carboxylation to more stable forms is disfavored. The industry shares a conviction that higher complexed carbon forms of nitrogen in the soil are not helpful to plant growth. Thus, the alternative reactions are generally poorly understood, ignored, or simply deemed undesirable for fertilizer manufacture. An example of this is the bacterial enzyme urea carboxylase, which still is poorly understood. Even the discovery of the characteristics of a representative enzyme merited publication in a major journal as recently as 2004. See Kanamori et al. J. Bacteriology May 2004; 186(9):2520-2.
In sum, fertilizer manufacture and desired compositions taught in this field reflect the requirements for feeding plants directly. Macro nutrients and micro nutrients such as N, PO4, S, K, Mg, Fe, B and Mo are supplied essentially without regard to the needs of soil bacteria and fungi. Any detailed analysis of nutrient fate usually centers on interactions in the soil that maintain solubility for use by the plant. Recently, for example, organic acids such as citrate have been used to complex minerals for absorption, as for example described by U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,626 issued to Zivion et al. and entitled “Fertilizer compositions for administering ionic metal microelements to plant roots.” However, such publications stress the use of small, stoichiometic amounts of citrate for this purpose. A molar ratio of citrate to metal ions of about 0.5-2.5 is taught, with a ratio of about 1.0 to about 1.5 being particularly preferred, in alkaline and neutral soils as well as acid soils.
Also see for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,976, issued to Yamashita in Aug. 25, 1998 “([a] central theme of any effective soil management program relies on maintaining the organic matter and thus microbial fractions of the soil. Several species of microbes can harvest atmospheric nitrogen, for example. Under ideal conditions, an entire ecologically coordinated, yet diverse, group of microbes can improve the soil in a myriad of ways).” However, this latter publication supplies specific microbes and micronutrients in limited ways (foliar application with sticky excipients, for example) and does not address the issue of how to convert large quantities of fecal biomass into soil builders.
The conversion of planetary vegetable and animal matter into large quantities of fecal coliform biomass on one hand, versus energy intensive chemical irrigation of increasingly impoverished top soil, on the other hand, has many serious problems. Greenhouse gases include CO2, CH4, and N2O, and are usually referred to in terms of CO2 equivalent effect on the atmosphere. Methane has a CO2 equivalent factor of about 23 (1 kg of released CH4 has the effeot of 23 kg of CO2). The United States Department of Energy (www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggrpt/) estimates that 8 million megatons of CH4 (183 million MT CO2) were released into the atmosphere in 2002 by agricultural operations. This is 30% of all CH4 emissions in the U.S. and of the agricultural CH4 emissions, 94% was from livestock operations, of which about one third (about 3 million MT) was from decomposition of livestock wastes. While CH4 is the main greenhouse gas produced by bioconversion of animal waste, CO2 and NOX gases are also produced. NOX release into the atmosphere is particularly ominous, because of an estimated CO2 equivalence potency of 310.
The problems of CO2 release for artificial fertilizer formation, release of multiple, powerful greenhouse gases from agriculture waste and destruction of the soil result from an insufficient paradigm that focuses on chemistry feeding of plants and overlooks the soil biota. Any technology that can address the nutritional needs of the soil while minimizing energy use can provide immeasurable benefits.